United Nations
The UN's purpose. The UN is good for gathering, talking and thinking together. Others with more evaluation. I'm not excited to say much about the UN here and now. The UN has little accountability. The UN as a fighting force is great cause for worry. The UN operates a few interesting programs. I like to take the good and eliminate the bad with an approach of evolution. The UN program centered upon sports and coaching is interesting. Links * Nations * The Diplomad talks of the inner workings of the diplomat culture. The UN is NOT well suited to champion relief efforts. Too little. Too late. Too much cost. Too much corruption. Rather, the suggstion of this campaign is to put efforts and trust of relief operations to other organizations beyond the UN that would be much better at offering relief. The UN is taking credit for things that hard-working, street savvy USAID folks have done. It was USAID working with their amazing network of local contacts who scrounged up trucks, drivers, and fuel; organized the convoy and sent it off to deliver critical supplies. A UN â€œair-freight handling centreâ€? in Aceh? Bull! It's the Aussies and the Yanks who are running the air ops into Aceh. We have people working and sleeping on the tarmac in Aceh, surrounded by bugs, mud, stench and death, who every day bring in the US and Aussie C-130s and the US choppers; unload, load, send them off. We have no fancy aid workers' retreat -- notice the priorities of the UN? People are dying and what's the first thing the UN wants to do? Set up "a camp for relief workers" one that would be "fully self-contained, with kitchen, food, lodging, everything." http://www.redstate.org/story/2005/1/1/132447/7541 Undermining UN with Aid Coalition The UN's International Development Secretary, Clare Short, accused President George W. Bush of trying to undermine the United Nations by setting up a rival coalition to coordinate relief following the Asian tsunami disaster. Ms. Short and her ilk would rather have people die than have the US go it "alone" with its partners. The US, Japan, India and Australia coordinated some of the worldâ€™s response. But former International Development Secretary Clare Short said that role should be left to the UN. â€œI think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to coordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up,â€? she said. â€œOnly really the UN can do that job,â€? she told BBC Radio Fourâ€™s PM programme. â€œIt is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.â€? Short of the UN said the coalition countries did not have good records on responding to international disasters. She said the US was â€œvery bad at coordinating with anyoneâ€? and India had its own problems to deal with. â€œI donâ€™t know what that is about but it sounds very much, I am afraid, like the US trying to have a separate operation and not work with the rest of the world through the UN system,â€? she added. US C-130s were flying in and out to provide aid within a week of the disaster. Planes were dropping off heaps of supplies. US choppers arrived. USAID is doing a knock-out job of marshalling and coordinating US and local resources to deliver real assistance to real people. The Aussies have planes and troops delivering gear and help. The Indians are getting goods to those in need. The UN was nowhere to be seen except for playing host to a big "coordination" meeting of donors to announce another large "assessment and coordination team" to arrive. Our USAID guys, who've been working 18-20 hrs/day, came back furious from this meeting saying everybody would be dead if the delivery of aid waited for the UN to set up shop and begin "coordinating." The UN types are upset with the US, Ms. Short, dear, not because we're undermining them but because we're showing them up as totally inept.